R.M.S. “Oroya”
Oct 18th /06
My dear Mother
You will expect a letter from Plymouth so I must send you a few lines, though there is not a great deal to say since I last wrote. They think we shall not reach Plymouth until tomorrow evening. Auntie means to wire to Father from there. I don’t know whether he will attempt to come & meet us at Tilbury. I am afraid we shall get there at rather a late hour on Saturday. Auntie will I expect have to stay the night in London. I quite expect Kathleen will be prepared to take me in. I do hope we shall get in a fairly reasonable hour so that she & the boys may be able to meet us. This boat does not seem able to put on speed when wind or tides are unfavourable & we have not been making very good runs the last few days.
You will get this I suppose on Saturday afternoon & can think of us then as nearing London. I shall be sorry to leave the boat for some things, board ship has great attractions for me, but it will be very nice indeed to get home & see you all again & it is quite time I gave up being the idle member of society I have been lately! I am interested to hear about Ethel’s new pupil. I shall like taking Judy’s lessons while I am at home. Tell her I shall expect her to do me credit like Boo did. I will write again of course from London & as soon as possible to tell you when to expect me. I cannot be quite sure whether the theatre plan will come off. Mr Gavegan will not be sure of his movements until he gets to London, or perhaps Plymouth, if he were to get transferred to another ship he might have to start off again almost immediately.
We are in the Bay now, but it is treating us very kindly – the Gulf of Lions was pretty choppy on Sunday afternoon after we left Marseilles, but that is the only really rough bit we have had since Fremantle. We could not land at Marseilles, I was rather sorry as I always like a chance of treading French soil, but we were there in the early morning & did not stay long, in fact we have stayed long anywhere & have not landed since Colombo. Auntie seems very well, she says she has not got so tired of this voyage as she was of the first one, but all the same she is not anxious for it to be extended. There have not been many on board for her to fraternise with – still she seems to have got on pretty well. We have seen something of Mrs Tyler, a lady in the first class who knows Miss Caw, we take tea with each other from time to time, tomorrow we are to go over there for a farewell tea party. The Captain is quite willing for us to go over & see her as often as we like. That is no doubt one of the advantages of travelling on an empty boat they are more ready to grant little privileges of that sort. Everyone seems to think we have a very nice set of officers, the stewards have been very civil & attentive too & altogether we have been very comfortable.
I am looking forward to seeing the new drawing room window & no doubt there are lots of little alterations & additions to the household gods that I shall have to inspect.
Goodnight now. Much love to you all from your loving daughter
May E Sladden
I am sending diary for you to read at leisure.
Friday 2 p.m. We were 104 miles from Plymouth at noon today, expect to reach it at 7.30.
